Archive
Blur Multiplayer Beta Demo; Lady Gaga on RB2; Bioshock 2.
First things first – if you have an xbox 360, you should see about getting yourself into the Blur Multiplayer Beta if you can. I got my code from The Escapist, via this link, though I’m not sure if they still have any available. I know that Joystiq had some as well, though I do not have the exact link at my fingertips (you could search it just as easily as I could, you lazy bastards).
It’s basically like Mario Kart (you know how much I love Mario Kart) meets Burnout Paradise, but with a leveling/skillup/loadout system. It’s super fun and I highly recommend it. I’m not sure when the beta ends (probably in a few days), but if you can get it, you should, and we should play. Also – I will crush you. My gamertag is Valiscariot. Drop me a PM on xbl and we’ll have some fun.
Second – Lady Gaga pack for RB2 coming this Tuesday. Who’s got two thumbs and is totally stoked? THIS GUY. Seriously, what a great party pack this is. I realize that it will completely kill my training for the PAX East Rock Band 2 Tournament, but I’m still not convinced I’ll participate anyway. As fun as it may be, I’m not quite convinced that I want to miss Saturday/Sunday panels because of it (not to mention the dozen or so guildies that will be in town for PAX). We’ll see.
Third – Bioshock 2 was everything I wanted it to be. Yeah, yeah, Yahtzee didn’t like it, but he doesn’t like anything – that’s his thing. It was a really good combo of old and new. Goodbye minigame of Pipe Dream, hello quicktime event that doesn’t suck (although I did find a bug in it – if you initiate the hack on a turret, and then auto-hack dart it while the quicktime screen is up, the quicktime screen stays up until you reload the game – boo!). The game was as long as I wanted it to be, the Little Sister events happened about as much as I could tolerate without getting annoyed, and there were enough Gene Tonics to make me wish I had more tonic slots. Well done. Multiplayer ended up being really, really sloppy, but fun for a while. The Sinclair Solutions addon didn’t really add anything I wanted to the game, but we’ll see what happens in the future. All in all, I’m happy.
I’ve somehow avoided buying FFXIII, and instead I’ve added it as the only game in my Gamefly queue. We’ll see how long it takes to get here. Gotta save money for PAX!
GameFly; Boss Kills; 10-man vs. 25-man.
Holy smokes, it finally shipped!
I love GameFly, I really do. I even had a clever plan with them – keep my queue insanely small, and they’ll be forced to send me the games I want. It worked up until now. This time, Bioshock 2 was the only game in my queue for two weeks. Looks like they will not, in fact, just buy another copy to fill the demand. All is good now, though, for they have finally shipped me a copy, and I should have it by Monday. I look forward to revisiting Rapture next week.
If you’re in Cambridge tonight, you have the chance to see me in rare form, which is to say out and about on the town instead of sequestered away in my office, working on Loremaster on my Death Knight. I will instead be at TT the Bear’s, greatly enjoying the music of The Luxury. Freakin’ awesome Brit-pop-rock band from Boston, winners of the 31st annual Rock and Roll Rumble, totally awesome ninja robots that breath lava while they play and more badass than Chuck Norris after he beheaded the Highlander. No, really. Check it out.
Some new Kill Shots/Achievements up – check em out.
Aeman (one of my guild‘s two raid leaders – trust me, they make it work well) has been working on an off-official-raidtimes 10-man Glory of the Icecrown Raider run for a few weeks now, and we’ve been making some steady progress. I’m quite excited about what’s to come. So far, the fights haven’t been too tricky; I’d say just enough for a 10-man run, enough to make you work for it. Averna and I were talking about the ease of 10m vs. 25m last night, and I’m of the mind that it’s not so much that the 10m runs are easier, per se, but rather that there’s less to carry, less confusion, and each and every member is important. On the one hand, that puts a lot more pressure on each raid member, but on the other, that’s a lot less chances to mess up; it narrows the margin of error by 15 players, and that’s a lot of confusion removed. Someone died? It’s pretty easy to notice, and probably pretty easy to get a battle rez up (it’s not like you have five druids in the raid – well, you probably don’t).
Thing is, with 25 people, someone’s more likely to mess up, someone’s more likely to need to be carried, and in some 25-man encounters, people can’t be carried. Everyone has a job, and they need to perform it flawlessly or everyone dies. That’s just how it goes sometimes, and I think that just becomes more apparent when there are more chances/people to mess up. 10 man runs aren’t inherently easier, they’re just easier to manage. I guess my point is, no hatin’ on those who push out 10-man runs/kills/achievements – they’re working just as hard as you are at them. They just might be working harder than the weakest link in your 25-man, and that can be the difference between a kill and a wipe.
This just in! Patch notes for 3.3.3 just hit, and boy am I pissed about some of it (just some, though – some is sweet!). Next post will cover what I think; stay tuned and see you soon!
10/02 Recap.
(+) It’s Friday!- (-) I am very, very tired.
- (+) I am currently doing what all real men do when they get home on Friday – drinking scotch.
- (-) We wiped on Yogg at 2% this week.
- (+) My GameFly games arrived in NetFlix-time; what an awesome service!
- (=) While I find the controls for Prototype a little tricky to grasp at first, they get easier the more you play/the more skills you acquire, plus the sheer carnage and mayhem make up for control issues.
- (+) I have discovered several new awesome sites this week, including TweetMeme and Translation Party. These make me happier and more entertained than I feel is reasonable, but I’ll take it.
- (+) Alice In Chains Pack 01 was released for Rock Band 2 DLC this week – I purchased it the second I got home on Friday.
- (-) I cannot, for the life of me, get through “Would?” on drums.
More good than bad makes for a good week. This weekend will most likely entail lots of watching TV/NetFlix, lots of playing Prototype, trying out Batman: Arkham Asylum, and much sleeping. I love my life.
It’s Not Debbie Anymore.
Deborah Gibson, I had really missed you. I admit it, I completely dropped the ball when you were on Broadway, but gimme a break – I was in middle school. I had very little control over whether or not I was in New York City. Since stopping your mall tours and moving into adult contemporary, I admit my interest waned a bit – until now. Until seeing your performance in Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Truth be told, I don’t know if I can even really call it a performance, it seemed so true-to-life. Such talent and emotion brought to such a plausible script – I don’t know how you do it, but I salute you.
So seriously – the scene where the shark jumps out of the water and eats the plane? Priceless. I definitely feel that the octupus got the shaft a bit; we don’t really get to see his motivations very much, other than perhaps his deep desire to either sleep or get something out of his eye. Either way, worth the price of admission (in this case, free, streaming via netflix). I highly recommend intoxication.
Also – Gamefly? How have I possibly owned an xbox this long and not known about this site? Are there any other totally awesome services that elude me? Please, let me know!
Wishlists.
